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Copyright 1922 bg J. Tandij Brown 



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This Brochure is dedicated to 
my Father in appreciation of his 
Guidance in my youth. 



FOREWORD 

Twelve years of experience in the 
field of Industry before entering- upon 
my duties as a Trade Instructor, has 
given me an insight into the problems 
that confront those leaving school to 
enter the work - a -day world. 

Daily contact with boys, many of 
whom social and economic barriers doom 
to a life of toil with-out adequate prepar- 
ation, information or counsel, relative to 
their life's work, prompted me to delve 
into the Science of Vocational Guidance. 

This Brochure was written with 
local problems and conditions in mind 
and with the hope that its contents will 
be helpful to others who are interested 
in this most vital subject. 

My hearty thanks are extended 
to those who generously gave time 
and valuable suggestions towards its 
preparation. 



"Who can declare for what high cause this 
Darling of the Gods was born." 



The establishment of a Vocational 
Bureau in Boston, Mass., in 1908, was 
the first organized attempt in the United 
States to bring into practice a move- 
ment that since has become recognized 
as the most progressive and helpful 
agency in education launched in a de- 
cade. The aims of this Organization 
were to place before young men and wo- 
men such advice and information as 
would aid them in a wise choice as a vo- 
cation; to publish and collect books, 
pamphlets and other literature on indus- 
trial, commercial and professional oc- 
cupations; to carry on correspondence, 
to give lectures, and interview persons 
seeking counsel and advice concerning 
matters of employment and employment 
adjustment. The funds for the enter- 
prise were furnished by persons inter- 



ested in public welfare movements. 
The educational value of this work was 
soon recognized by the public school 
authorities of Boston, and a few years j 
later the Bureau became a part of that J 
public school system. 

From the beginning the movement 
has spread until at present every large 
city that boasts of progressive public 
schools has, as a part of its organiza- 
tion, a Department of Vocational Guid- 
ance. 

Washington, until recently, was 
among the large cities lacking a well 
organized Committee or Bureau having 
as its object the vocational advisement 
of children in its public schools. In the 
report of the Assistant Superintendent 
in charge, of Colored Schools to the 
Superintendent, July 1915, he stressed 
the point that "The need of organized 
vocational guidance calls for executive 
action." His selection of a Central 
Committee on Vocational Guidance in 



February 1919, further evidenced his 
profound interest in the subject and his 
knowledge of the moral, civic and eco- 
nomic significance of this movement. 

The selection by this Committee of 
a "Vocational Counselor" for each of 
the buildings in the 10th, 11th, 12 

.1 13th Divisions was a most import- 
ant movement, and the individual ef- 
ts of ! Counselors will prove of 
lasting 1 value to such pupils who are 
fortunate to come under their observa- 
tion. 

Previous to the establishmenl of 
this Committee on Vocational Guidance, 
many and various have 

made in the elementary and hi/h 
schools, to bring into practice a wise 
vocational guidance of children s:nd 
youth. It was felt that the tim 
come when these scattered efforts, 
least in respect to pupils advancing 
from the elementary to the high schools 
or the vocational schools, should be cl 2 1 - 



nitely organized. Thus the schools of 
Washington became identified in an or- 
ganized way with the Vocational Guid- 
ance Movement. 

"Vocational Guidance is bound up 
first with educational problems, and 
second with economic questions." 

Authorities on the subject are not 
so much concerned with what Vocation- 
al Guidance is, as, to what it attempts 
to do. It has bean well agreed that its 
aims are to give helpful advice to per- 
sons in choosing, preparing for, entering 
into and making progress in occupa- 
tions. This is attempted by giving oc- 
cupational information about commerce 
and industry, and educational informa- 
tion relative to courses of study, schools 
and colleges best fitted to provide in- 
struction for their chosen life's work. 
Again it wcud assist in making oppor- 
tunities for one to discover his voca- 
tional bent, placement, and give such 
help as would enab'e him to make pro- 



gress in his chosen Held. 

"To work is the heritage of the 
masses." The schools are concerned 
h the masses.- The function of the 
schools is to prepare the masses to en- 
ter the work-a-day world equipped with 
h mania- and physical abilities trrat 
ie them to adjust themselv 
to the many perplexing problems that 
it them in the fields of in- 
dustry. This the schools in the ful]: 
have failed to do. 
Until the establishment of vocai 
al and trade schools no formal effort 
had been made to prepare boys and girls 
to meet the demands of industry in an 
tcient manner. Statistics of school 
leaving have proven that industry swal- 
lows up a vast army of children ea 

' moulds I in t making 

suit its own needs. The establish - 

at of apprenticeship, vestibules and 

other types of schools in factories and 

merchantile establishments is evidence 



of the desire of industry and commerce 
for more intelligent workers. The in- 
troduction of vocational and trade 
scliools was an attempt to supply the 
demand for efficient workers in industry 
and commerce. Considering there are 
more than three thousand separate and 
distinct occupations and that few if any 
schools exist where an attempt is mace 
to give instruction in more than twenty, 
because of lack of facilities, space, cost 
ol equipment and maintainance, it is ob- 
vious that some ether scheme must be 
devised to acquaint boys and girls with 
an estimate of their abilities; further to 
give such occupational information 
will enable them to capitalize their I 
ents in such manner as to make th 



i.'Y-"^ 



more efficient workers and render great- 
er service to society. 

This is one of the problems of Vo- 
cational Guidance. Its value from an 
educational standpoint is that it opens 
the eyes of the pupil to the work of the 



world, helps him to find his place in it, 
aids in preparing him to enter it, and 
assists him in making progress in his 
chosen field. Its moral value is in so 
doing this, his future status as a good 
citizen is secured. From an economic 
point it enables him to enter adult life 
equipped with keen tools and sharpened 
s to earn his livelihood. 
Since Vocational Guidance concerns 
itself chiefly with young people found 
in the public schools, and since its ef- 
forts and results are closely related to 
the economic welfare of the community, 
it is advisable that the undertaking 
should be a part of or closely related to 
the publis school system. This would 
enable such a department to coordinate 
its activities with that of the attend- 
ance and work certification offices, with 
the department of mental and physical 
measurement, school census, with those 
conducting classes in occupations and 
engaged in developing means for sup- 



plying school children with vocational 
information, and with the output of the 
vocational schools. 

The machinery necessary for carry- 
ing on such work is generally super- 
vised by a central or advisory commit- 
tee, a special department or bureau of 
vocational guidance and a staff of coun- 
selors. 

The central or advisory committee 
should be composed of school officers, 
members of parent-teacher associations, 
and representatives of civic, commercial 
and industrial organizations whose as- 
sistance and advice would be valuable 
in planning vocational guidance activi- 
ties and vocational courses of study to 
fit the community, helpful in gathering 
occupational information, and of valu- 
able assistance when attempting to 
make placements. 

The Department of Vocational 
Guidance should be directed by one who 
has specialized in the Science of Voca- 



tional Guidance, possessing an ind 

well as an academic point of 
•v/. It should be a y engaged in 

the gathering of occupational and edu- 
cational information of particular inter- 
est an Lie to the community a.*d pre- 
,re fcu< I lion for use to 
. pupil and parent. It should assist 
urses of study in occu] 

• a source of infor- 
ichers conducting classes. 
In lieu ( 

. of the school census and 
have file cards bearing the nam 

inforr 
schools 
grade. It should send out I:t- 
ire and vocational inforr 
nselors and keep them v 
formed cone 
t in 

bringing the pupil, the 



cussing and planning the child's im- 
mediate vocational future or for arrang- 
ing its educational program. 

The Counselors should interview 
pupils brought to their notice for such 
reasons as intent to leave school to go 
to work, change of schools, le^jhig 
school because of economic necessity, 
arriving at the age when the law re- 
leases them from being compelled to 
continue, about to enter a vocational 
school, and at such other critical times 
as enter the life of the pupil. Case 
methods should be applied in order to 
fmd out the social life of the child and 
arrange conferences with the parent to 
obtain intimate knowledge of his en- 
vironment, interests, talents and person- 
al data regarding his problems. They 
should be familiar with and make use of 
mental and vocational tests to deter- 
mine, (first) forms of intelligence, (sec- 
ond) to detect subnormal or abnormal 
children, (third) to select unusually 



bright children for special observation 
and instruction, (fourth) to make a ten- 
tative beginning of the guidance of the 
vocational choice of children among la- 
•, trades and professions. 
Vocational Guidance should be pro- 
vided before, during and after courses 
vocational education if these courses 
to be truly effective. 
Students in vocational courses 
>uld bo enrolled only after careful se- 
lection on the basis of fitness and v 
con d ehoice. 

Course study in "Occupati< 

Problems and Opportunities" in the 
grades above the fifth and the establ! ;h- 
ment of "Life Career" classes i 
Junior and Senior High Schools, a 
ctivities of the 

of an efficient De- 
ment of Vocation 

iildren above the fifth grade 
should be given specific informal 
concer the various occupations 



carried on by persons in the industrial, 
commercial and professional world for 
economic gain. This can best be given 
by arranging special courses of study 
rather than attempting to give it in con- 
nection with lessons in English, Geog- 
raphy and other studies as is often 
done. The subject matter should be 
chosen with local needs and opportmr- 
ties in mind, but broad and general 
enough to give the pupil a knowledge 
of the occupational world with the 
civil, moral and economic point of view 
ever before him. 

Pupils of the Junior High School 
who finish the ninth grade are confront- 
ed with the problems of choosing be- 
tween the academic course, the busi- 
ness course, the secondary vocational or 
the technical department of the high 
schools. A "Life Career" class would 
be the solution of that problem which 
in all probability is the most important 
decision a child would have to make 



in his whole school career. 

The "Life Career" classes in the 
Junior and Senior High Schools should 
embrace studies that tend to widen the 
students' experience, aid in discovering 
and developing their talents, interests 
and abilities, that teach the relation of 
education to their vocational life and 
such studies that enable them to plan 
and prepare for their life's work. 

Subjects of interest and concern to 
students in such classes are those of 
labor organizations, government control 
of industry, collective bargaining, scien- 
tific management, employment manage- 
ment, time studies, job analysis, labor 
turnover, wages, industrial rehabilita- 
tion, closed shop, open shop, profit shar- 
ing, bonus giving, and other coopera- 
tive schemes. These are vital questions 
of the day that every worker must 

know. 

In setting up a practice of Vocation- 
al Guidance, the field in which it is to 



work must be surveyed to determine 
what the community offers the youth 
and adult for gaining educational advan- 
tages and economic independence. 

At a glance one is. disposed to feel 
that 'Washington has a wealth of insti- 
tutions for the educational advancement 
of its Colored youth. 

A more critical glance at the occu- 
pational- opportunities, discloses the 
[act that they are less fortunate in this 
respect. 

Due to the limited avenues of work 
that are opened to the Colored youth of 
Washington, the choice of an occupa- 
tion should be given serious considera- 
tion. The preparation for such work 
should be carried out with great zeal in 
!.er to meet and combat conditions 
hic^i they have no control. 

For the Colored youth who leaves 

school at an early age, or one who has 

d without taking into account 

his unfitness for some specific occupa- 



tion, he finds the positions offered him 
in the various government departments 
paying a small salary and few if any 
chances for advancement. On the other 
hand he finds a number of the "street 
trades" open to him with the attendant 
small return for his labors and the ever 
present bad influences that surround 
such work. When age and size permit 
he is onered such jobs as drivers, jump- 
ers on delivery wagons, boot blacks, ele- 
vator operators, porters, waiters, buss 
beys, chauffeurs, dishwashers, pressers, 
cleaners and dyers, gardeners, tub men 
in iaunderies, firemen, workers in pack- 
ing houses and markets, hucksters, but- 
r s, footmen, attendants in banks, jani- 
tors, firemen, watchmen, handlers in 
auction houses, porters in terminal sta- 
tions, street railway track workers, 
teamsters and the whole geuntlet of un- 
skilled occupations carried on in the 
building industry and in the streets. 
To a proportion of the girls who 



finish the Normal School, Washington 
offers positions in its public school sys- 
tem. For those who ar< le to pass 
such examinations as aoo prescribed, 

/tain p s in its g tment de- 

partments and bureaus are obtains! 
A number of Colored business houses, 
nee companies, real estate firms, 
law offices and financial institutions of- 
fer them stenographic and clerical po- 
sitions. The needle trades are carried 
on extensively in dress making estab- 
lishments, millinery shops, tailor shops 
and private dwellings. Hair dressing 
shops and beauty parlors enroll stu- 
dents and employ apprentices who f 
a profitable field for their work when 
they have completed the course. 

o the girls who leave school at 
an early age to seek employment, the 

d is limited to such occ 113 as 

attendants in physicians' offices, dental 
offices, switch board operators, eleva' 
operators, maids in hotels, clubs, tr 



aters, stores and private homes, mani- 
curists in barber shops, cooks, dusters 
and stock carriers in department stores, 
workers in laundries, cleaning and dye- 
ing establishments, waitresses in tea 
rooms and cafeterias, charwomen, care 
takers, employment in box, overall and 
apron factories, car cleaners around 
terminals and street railway barns and 
all manner of domestic service. 

For those who have had the good 
fortune to have chosen their life's work 
and prepared for it, Washington and the 
country at large offer unbound oppor- 
tunities and compensation for services 
rendered. 

The youth who chooses a profes- 
sional career, prepares for it, enters up- 
on it and makes progress, is assured of 
his social standing and economic inde- 
pendence. The same may apply should 
he choose an industrial, agricultural or 
commercial career. The all important 
problem for the youth is to choose and 



begin to prepare for his career at that 
time in life when conditions are such 
as will enable him to carry out his pur- 
pose. It is at this point in the child's 
school life that Vocational Guidance is 
of inestimable value. 

The lessons in occupations tend to 
open the pupils eyes to the work of the 
world and the problems which will con- 
front them upon entry into it. At a 
certain age, every youth has in his mind 
some kind of worker he would like t?; 
be. The lessons in occupations teach 
him the tasks he would have to do, the 
advantages and disadvantages of such 
an occupation, how he might prepare for 
this calling, the wages he might expect, 
its value to society, his chances for ad- 
vancement and how such work would 
effect his social status. Undoubtedly 
such information when given, sets the 
child to thinking and his choice will 
change as he goes further into the sub- 
ject, until the thought of any one lire 



of work is lost, because of the interest 

in the subject of occupations in general. 

By the time he reaches the Junior 

High School, he has a comprehensive 

knowledge of .he world's work and may 

make special studies of a number of 

occupations under conditions that will 

mil him to "try out 5 ' such as he has 

i en consideration, for the specific pur- 

i.g at least a tentative 

■xce of his life's work. 

special advantages to be de- 
rived by the Colored youth of Washing- 
ten from t)\Q teaching of occupation.; 
and the establishment of "Life Career" 
sses, will come in his being made ae- 
on, ainted with great strides made re- 
illy by Negroes here in the District 
g commercial and industrial lines. 
In the establishment of banks, the 
forming of cooperative stores, real 
estate development companies, amuse- 
ment enterprises, moving picture cor- 
porations, apartment, hotel, business 



and theater building projects, insurance 
investments, printing establishments, 
stock companies financed by men of 
color for the benefit and in the interest 
of the Race, opens an entirely new field 
of labor for the Colored youth of the 
District. 

The i lopme: such enter- 

prises means that avenues of employ- 
ment will be open to them which here- 
tofore have been closed, and the know- 
ledge of such employment should be 

Light in the schools in a specific rather 
than a general manner that they may 

ow of these opportunities and prepare 
lor them. 

Vocational Education in the Colored 
schools is undertaken in (first) two F 
vocational schools, (second) one Normal 
school, (third) one Business High 
School, (fourth) one Manual Training 
High School. None of these Vocational 
Centers so far as is generally known, 
save the Normal School has effected a 



definite, positive and systematic rela- 
tionship with the vocations of the com- 
munity. The vocational program of the 
Manual Training High School is being 
worked out to correct this evil along 
a number of lines. A Business High 
School divorced from connection with 
the Academic High School will stimu- 
late its activities in a like manner. 

In the further establishment of Pre- 
vocational Activities in the Junior High 
Schools the various "try out" courses 
offered will no doubt be established with 
the purpose in mind of having a diver- 
sified number of "short unit" courses 
conducted in an intensive manner, the 
same bein^ selected because of their 
value to society. Pupils following these 
courses would be followed up with a 
system of cumulative record cards 
showing in a brief but specific manner 
their interest, abilities and fitness for 
such work. 

Data of this kind would be valu- 



able reference material concerning the 
pupils for the Officials in charge of such 
schools. It could find its way into the 
hands of counselors and advisors and be 
a gauge in advising the child vocation- 
ally. 

With the enactment of adequate 
compulsory school attendance laws, 
school census legislation along with the 
development of continuation schools, a 
Department of Vocational Guidance 
would be of material assistance in carry- 
ing out these provisions. 

The proposed legislation is in keep- 
ing with other progressive educational 
movements and means the necessary at- 
tendance in school of thousands of chil- 
dren who otherwise at the age of four- 
teen and fifteen would drop out to seek 
work. Compelling these children to con- 
tinue school, without some agency to 
assist them in a wise choice of a voca- 
tion when they are finally released, 
would indeed be denying them the one 



thing that would make school going less 
distasteful — that is, supplying an in- 
centive for school attendance. Compel- 
ling children to stay in school after a 
certain age without an incentive is dead- 
ing and productive of little good con- 
sidering per capita cost for educating 
them. 

It is safe to say that no system of 
continuation schools however highly or- 
ganized could function properly with the 
field from which it obtains its pupils 
without some system of Vocational 
Guidance as a part of its program. 

t^ Washington has a wealth of agen- 
cies where literature and information 
may be obtained on matters concerning 
the subject of Vocational Guidance and 
the study of "Occupational Problems 
and Opportunities." 

The Federal Board for Vocational 
Education, furnishes a number of ex- 
perts on vocational advisement and 
placement, and a vast amount of litera- 



ture concerning such subjects. The Bu- 
reau of Education offers facilities for 
reference, research and investigation. 
The National Research Council supplies 
information and welcomes conferences 
on all matters pertaining to the Move- 
ment. The American Federation of La- 
bor is a source of supply from which 
questions concerning labor and labor or- 
ganizations may be obtained. The Bu- 
reau of Conciliation in the Department 
of Labor is a clearing house for the oc- 
cupational problems and opportunities 
for the Negro. The Congressional Li- 
brary and the Carnegie Library's shel- 
ves contain books, pamphlets and cur- 
rent literature on the subject. The Cen- 
sus Bureau will soon release its valu- 
able data on occupations as it specifi- 
caly concerns Colored workers. The 
Junior. Division of the United States 
Employment Service has worked out 
tentative courses of study on occupa- 
tions for use in elementary, junior and 



senior high schools, normal schools and 
colleges; attempts placement and em- 
ployment supervision for minors. The 
Young Men's Christian Association of- 
fers an extension course from Columbia 
University to ex-service men, teachers 
and others interested in the subject. 
The Rotary Club has a program of Vo- 
cational Guidance as part of its activi- 
ties and a number of private schools 
and organizations have recently evinced 
great interest in the subject. 

While Vocational Guidance tends to 
do the practical thing for the youth in 
the schools, it does not fail to attempt 
the ideal. 

The discriminating teacher who is 
endowed with that uncanny faculty of 
recognizing the spark of genius in chil- 
dren, is compelled time after time to 
relinquish the fond hops that the child 
will some day blossom into an artist, a 
great singer or some other gifted per- 
son, because of the limited time the pu- 



\ 



pil comes under her observation. The 
special teachers of drawing and music 
have in their charge boys and girls who 
undoubtedly show rare qualities of abili- 
ties along these lines. 

There can be no doubt of the ar- 
tistic tendencies of the Negro; which 
have already found notable expressions 
in Poetry, Music and the Fine Arts to 
the point of unusual achievement. 

In the first faint glimpse of human 
civilization we see the African already 
highly artistic, bringing from the land 
of Punt a culture that flowers on the 
banks of the Nile into the most sublime 
examples of Sculpture and Architecture. 
Throughout the centuries we find the 
impulse crushed for a time, but at 
length it bursts forth, now into an "Al- 
hambra," a Dunbar, a Coleridge Taylor 
and a Tanner. Our whole race history 
bequeathes to us such a rich emotional 
inheritance that many have prophesied 
that from the Negro race must spring 



the artistic genius of America. Already 
we have to a certain degree fulfilled that 
prophecy in poetry and music. 

A Department of Vocational Guid- 
ance would ever be watchful for our 
boys and girls who possess talents above 
the average, inform parents of ttfieir 
children's rare endowment, encourage 
them to develop and cultivate these ten- 
dencies and thereby save for the Race 
numbers of boys and girls who might 
otherwise lead mediocre l;ves. 



V *P Hr "V V 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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